This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2003-0020099 filed on Mar. 31, 2003 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a network management method for wireless transmission/reception of data streams and a network system and apparatus using the same, and more particularly, to a network management method for managing wireless channels allocated to apparatuses in a network and a network system using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Development of new wireless techniques has resulted in a higher transmission rate, and thus, attempts have been made to replace wired home audio/video (A/V) systems with wireless systems. Recently, there have been a few attempts to make such replacements, most of which are based on streaming of Audio Video (AV) data by using a channel concept of a wireless Local Area Network (LAN).
In the related art, there is a single data-streaming server 110 and a plurality of data-streaming clients 120, 130, as shown in FIG. 1. The data-streaming server 110 functions to transmit AV streams over a channel allocated to a specific wireless channel band of a wireless interface. The data-streaming clients 120, 130 function to receive and process AV streams transmitted over the allocated channel. The data-streaming server 110 may be, for example, a set-top box or Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) player capable of transmitting AV streams over a specific channel. The data-streaming clients 120, 130 may be, for example, Plasma Display Panels (PDP's) or wall-mounted TVs capable of receiving AV streams over specific channels and processing them.
In the related art, since the quality of data streaming is lowered in an Internet Protocol (IP) network, most systems mainly solve the deterioration of quality by using a Medial Access Control (MAC) layer instead of using an IP layer. Broadcasting or multicasting is mostly used for data streaming.
The data-streaming server 110 and the data-streaming clients 120, 130 are designed to use channels allocated to wireless channel bands of a wireless interface. When the data-streaming server 110 is turned on, it begins to broadcast AV streams. When users turn on the data-streaming clients 120, 130, the data-streaming clients 120, 130 receive the AV streams transmitted over predetermined channels and display them on their screens.
The related art does not provide explicit control relationships between the data-streaming server 110 and the data-streaming clients 120, 130, and the following problems occur when a plurality of data-streaming servers 110 and data-streaming clients 120, 130 are located within the coverage area of a wireless communication system.
1. Since there are no mechanisms capable of dynamically changing an allocated channel, it is impossible to perform streaming due to interference occurring when a first data-streaming server using the same channel as a second data-streaming server is within the coverage area of the second data-streaming server.
2. Even though the first data-streaming server located within the coverage area of the second data-streaming server casually uses a different channel, a data-streaming client using the same allocated channel as the second data-streaming server cannot receive AV data transmitted from the first data-streaming server.
Therefore, there is a need for providing other technical solutions to overcome the above problems in the related art.